INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS LIMITED (Incorporated in the ACT) ISSN 1030 4177 IPA REVIEW Vol. 43 No. I June-August 1989 ki Productivity: the Prematurely r Counted Chicken John Brunner New figures show that plans for a national wage 2 IPA Indicators rise based on productivity gains are misplaced. In 30 years government expenditure per head in Australia has more than doubled. 13 Industrial Relations: the British Alternative 3 Editorials Joe Thompson The death throes of communism will be long and painful. Economic reform in Australia is moving The "British disease" has become a thing of the too slowly. Mr Keating on smaller government. past. Now Australia should take the cure. 8 - Press Index E Lee Kuan Yew The press gallerys love affair with Mr Keating Interviewed by Owen Harries looks like its over. Mr Macphee wins hearts, but Singapores experienced and astute PM on issues not where it counts. ranging from Gorbachev to regional trade. 11 Defending Australia 32 Myth and Reality in the Conservation Harry Gelber Debate The massacre in Beijing has burst the bubble of Ian Hore-Lacy illusion surrounding China. A cool assessment of the facts in an emotional debate. 16 Around the States Les McCaffrey 38 Big Governments Threat to the Rule If governments want investment they must stop of Law forever changing the rules. Denis White Youth Affairs How regulations can undermine the law. 25 Cliff Smith 48 Militarism and Ideology One hundred young Australians debate their Michael Walker countrys future. For Marxists in power the armed struggle continues. 26 Strange Times Ken Baker 50 Terms of Reference The Sex Pistols corrupted by capitalism; Billy John Nurick Bragg on being inspired by Leninism. The meaning of corruption. 28 Moore Economics 51 Do Railways have a Future? Des Moore John Hicks Those debt danger bells are ringing again. With combined annual losses in NSW and Unionists View Victoria of almost $2 billion public transport 31 A needs urgent reform. Laurie Short Moves are under way to form yet another party 56 Good Schools in Bad Neighbourhoods of the left. Susan Moore 46 Issues In Education Two schools which have triumphed over their surroundings. Leonie Kramer The case against external examinations fails. 62 A Country Practice: Feminized Community 60 World Policy Review Nada Karadzic A debate rages over Stanford Universitys decision to expurgate its Western culture courses. A community cannot survive on compassion alone...except on T.V. 67 IPA News Rod Kemp resigns as director. r airor.• Aen tialeer Design: Bob Calwell Associates Review Office Unsolicited manuscripts are welcomed. However, potential Production Assistance: Tracey Seto contributors are advised to discuss proposals for articles with Advertising: David Parker 6th ttoor the Editor. Printing: Wilke Color 83 William Street Letters to the Editor for Aublication should normally be kept Melbourne, 3000 to no more than 300 words. Distribution: Gordon Gotch Ltd Phone: (03) 614 2029 Views expressed in the publications of the IPA are those of Circulation: Loreen Noakes the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Facsimile: (03) 629 4444 Institute. IPA Review was established in 1947 by Charles Kemp, founding Director of the IPA. IPA INDICATORS Additional amount payable over a 25-year $50,000 loan Total Australian petroleum imports in 1987/88: $2,099 by a new house buyer (at 17 per cent p.a. interest) million. Total petroleum exports: $2,054 million. compared with 12 months ago (at 13.5 per cent): f • 5 $41,100. Percentage of Australian male flight attendants who • claim they have been sexually harassed: 38. Annual interest payable on Australias gross external • s s debt in 1977178: $0.6 billion. In 1987/88: $93 billion. Increase in the number of wage and salary earners in • s s Australia over the last five years: 984,000 (193 per cent). • . Price of a US dollar (in Australian dollars) in 1980: 86.4 cents. In 1989: over $130. Number of times more air pollution in Beijing than in . s New York: 16. i Total real expenditure per head by Federal, State and Local Governments in 19$7/88: $7,024. Expenditure Deaths of coalminers per 10 million metric tonnes per head averaged in the 1970s: $5,101. In the 1950s: (Mmt) of coal mined in Chinas state-owned mines: 24. $3,160. Deaths per 10 Mmt of coal mined in OECD countries (excluding Turkey): 0.6. . . Australian equity investment abroad, June 1984: $8 billion. December 1988: $38.7 billion. Worlds largest exporter of wheat in 1914: Tsarist Russia. Worlds largest Importer of wheat today: the s 5 s Soviet Union. s s Foreign investment in Australia (198687): $171 billion. Of which US: 23.7 per cent. UK: 21.7 per cent. Japan: Median age of the Australian population in 1901: 23 12.5 per cent. years. In 1986: 31 years. In 2031 (est.): 40-44 years. e5 Average expenditure per head in Australia on alcoholic Percentage of Australian school children in government drinks in 1987/88: $481. Expenditure per head on gas, schools: 72.7. In non-government schools: 27.3. electricity and fuel: $233. Percentage of total government expenditure on government schools: 82.8. On non-government schools: 17.2. Percentage of mail delivered on time according to • i Australia Post: 89. According to a survey by the Australian Automobile Chamber of Commerce: 17.7. Number of new Christian denominations across the world founded each week: 5. SOURCES: (1) The Sun, May 271989; (2) Reserve Bank of Australia, Bulled, December 1988; (3) ibid; (4) John W. Freebairn, How to Cut Government Spending, Policy, Autumn 1989; figures adjusted for inflation; (S) Commonwealth Treasury, Economic Round-Up, April 1989; (6) Foreign Investment Review Board, Report 1987/88, AGPS, (7) ABS Cat No. 5201.4 ABS Cat No. 31014 (a) The Age, May 191989; (9) ABARE, Agriculture and Resources Quarterly, No. 11989; (10) Survey by Dr Claire Williams, Flinders University, S.A.; (It) Cat. No. 6248.0, Employed Wage and Salary Earners Australia; (12) The OECD Observe, ApiwMay 1989; (13) ibid; (14) 7heAustralian, March 819$9; (15) Liberal-National Coalition Redronou bicamePoliey; (16)APCRevlew, Australian Parents Council, No.2,1989; (17) The Economise, January 61989. 2 EDITORIALS The Death Throes of Communism The changes in the communist world that began in Modem communications and cultural exchanges have 1985 with Mikhail Gorbachevs assumption of power made the populations of communist countries have gained spectacular momentum in 1989. increasingly aware of the glaring contrast between the The first few months have already witnessed the general prosperity generated by Western capitalism and withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan; the elec- their own impoverished condition. tion of the Congress of Peoples Deputies followed by In the long run the death of the Marxist-Leninist uninhibited (and televised) debate at its first session; the Idea is likely to be fatal to communist regimes and reduce re-legalization of Solidarity and semi-democratic, honest the likelihood of major international conflict. But in the elections in Poland; the potent symbolism of the re-burial meantime there are the short and intermediate runs. The of Imre Nagy in Budapest, and Vietnams commitment regimes are still in place, and the nomenklatura and ap- to withdraw completely from Cambodia. paratchiks have a powerful vested interest in keeping Now there is China. Until them there — as well as the tools of recently, many alleged experts in repression necessary to do so. If the the West held that the Chinese Chinese students taught one lesson, leaders were handling the process the bloody response of the Chinese of change better than the Russians: leaders taught another vitally im- moving faster and more efficiently portant one: it is dangerous to as- on the economic front while keep- sume that because communist ing a tight rein on political reform. regimes are spiritually bankrupt Things blew up in their faces. With they will relinquish their power bravery and tenacity, the students quietly. of Beijing have demonstrated the What of the second question? dangers to communist regimes of Many in the West assume that if the moving towards a market economy Cold War is ending we must be without also engaging in political headed for better things. After 40 liberalization. years of tension and fear it is an un- Two questions: Is communism now dead, or at least derstandable reaction. It may also be quite wrong. The dying, as many proclaim? And what sort of world can we question turns not on thesincerity of the motives of Gor- expect to live in as a result of the changes taking place? bachev and the other communist leaders. It is rather a In one very real and important sense communism is matter of how regimes whose only comparative ad- indeed dead. Marxism-Leninisms claim to represent the vantage consists of huge military machines will react to a future, to offer a blueprint for development, is utterly likely combination of internal instability, declining inter- discredited. Seventy years after the Russian Revolution, national status, and a continuation of poor economic per- it has only a collection of graft-ridden, grotesquely formance. While welcoming the prospect of changes inefficient, cynical, backward regimes to its name. which weaken the grip of totalitarian states on their Outside Western universities and a few Third World peoples, it would be unwise to conclude that the road cliques, the ideologys once potent hold over the ahead will be smooth. imagination of intellectuals and idealists is shattered. Policy Impasse Must Be Broken The Minister for Finance, Senator Walsh, recently Financial Times had concluded that "the Australian acknowledged that the public does not realise fully the economy is mired deep in crisis and the outlook is awful." gravity of the economic situation facing Australia.